0: Bleeding Oblivion

The fall from The Carriage was going to kill him. Zalez was sure of that. So he just accepted it, lying face down on the roof of a tower in the commerce sector of Antariz city. He coughed, spraying the gravel with blood. The air was heavy with smoke and poison so it just made his conditions worse.

He had been double-crossed, even though he knew that dealing with someone as untrustworthy as Udrax was not going to be easy. He had relied on rumors only and now he regretted it. He should have found out more about this guy before accepting to meet him at his flying Carriage but desperation led to his ruin. In the end, he'd been outsmarted by this guy. He just wished for the Reset to occur soon before Udrax found him.

The sky under which he died was a dull gray that hid the clear blue beyond. Not a dull gray of rain, but of generations of pollution leaving a permanent stain on the world. On the skyway, somewhere around the 20th story of the building, carjets whizzed past at insane speed, leaving behind a vague memory of violet afterglow. He heard the hissing of a descending carjet. His arrival would mess up everything. He worried that his plan would not work if Udrax interfered. All that had led to it had been driven meaningless. Unless…

The dull black, sleek carjet landed with a loud yet short crunch. It was a carjet built for style and luxury, with efficiency hidden under its dark chrome exterior. A carjet that could achieve insane speeds not in the air but on the ground too. The doors clanked open upwards and out came Udrax, the man himself, finally getting his own hands dirty for something. So dealing with me was that much important for this guy, Zalez wondered. Something about me has brought out the puppetmaster from his cloak of shadows.

The gait. The full black eyes. The cold expression. The twitching of the left eye. Udrax was so far removed from normal humans that he looked out of place in the light of day. This was a man of darkness who only exists in rumors. Now he walked up to Zalez with two mercenaries trailing behind him. One of them had a metal arm. They both carried weapons. Loyal dogs to an indifferent master.

Drugs. Technologies. Gambling. BioUpgrades. Cybernetics. Slaves.

This man made money out of thin air, doing all that should not be done. Not the King of the city’s underworld but the city’s underworld itself in human shape. And right now he stood before Zalez. A gaunt man with pale skin and completely black eyes. He was wearing lenses switched to a dark mode, adding to his inhuman appearance further. Zalez bent down and sat in front of Zalez with his legs crossed. The two men towered behind, looming like pillars with guns. Udrax snapped his fingers and pointed at Zalez. The one with the metal arm advanced, grabbing Zalez by the side chest, hurting him. He held back the pained groans. The man turned him over, causing the two men’s eyes to meet. While Udrax just stared down vaguely, his left eye twitching, Zalez looked into the darkness and saw himself being reflected. Stare into the abyss… Beyond that pale face with the swept-back black hair, the sky began to darken. The Reset was coming.

Udrax finally spoke, keeping his gaze intact: “You wanted to meet me. Here I am.” A low voice that sounded like sandpaper rubbing slightly against concrete. There was no emotion in it. Just a cold statement.

“Yeah but …. Not like this. A little more hospitable, perhaps.” replied Zalez, laughing a little but then stopping because it hurt too much. Zalez worked his brain. There had to be some way to deal with all this. He just had to figure it out. The Reset was getting closer. Anytime soon, the Alignment would occur taking him away from all this.

“I should make it clear that I do not intend to let you survive. I offer you death, nothing more.” Udrax continued in the same tone.

“So why am I still alive then? Finish me off.”

“I will but first, I need something you have. Tell me the location of The Client.”

He knew about The Client. Zalez was shocked but hid it well. Not much emotion showed on a face contorted with pain.

“What are you talking about man?”

“I had hoped that you cooperated but it seems that I must use other methods to dissect you.”

Dissect? Zalez wondered why he had chosen that word. This man was deadly, he knew that for sure now. He also understood that his predicament was of the unescapable kind. If only he could make it to the Reset with his brain intact.

“You're awfully patient,” said Zalez, playing for time.

“Why rush the process? You’ll answer me one way or the other.” To one of his men standing behind, he said: “Bring the device.”

The man with the metal arm turned, proceeding towards the carjet.

Zalez was hit by an idea.

Maybe…

Maybe I could incorporate this into everything.

He felt sorry for Udrax at the moment, as Zalez closed his eyes and concentrated all his remaining energy on a final contingency. The shape of the entire scheme was about to morph.

Zalez plunged into new waters headfirst.

.

.

.

.

.

The man with the metal arm turned, proceeding towards the carjet.

He returned with a helmet in his hand. It was dull indigo with wire and diodes protruding from several places. It was connected to a small switchboard with a screen and several dials and indicators flashing in a neon frenzy. The man lifted Zalez’s head a little with his metal arm and put on the helmet. Zalez did not struggle. He was too weak to do so. The man handed the switchboard to Udrax who flicked a switch.

The agony began.

The machine bit down on his head, clasping it tightly. Zalez felt like his skull would crack open like an egg. Slowly, excruciatingly, bit by bit, the machine removed his flesh, disintegrating it away. Flashes of red burned out his eyes and ate away his flesh. Zalez began screaming. The machine did not stop, now targeting his muscles. Methodically, the fine lasers cut down all the way to his skull. His face was gone. His eyes. Nose. Mouth. Ears. All gone. But he was still alive in a state of torment.

At some point, Zalez stopped screaming. His awareness was shattering. The pain had dislodged him from his existence. His sense of self melted away and led to nothingness. Zalez was in a dark void with an aurora of pain flickering brightly. Shards of awareness, memory, and personality scattered into the void. Then it was all over. The machine had cleared away his head and extracted his brain.

………

The sky darkened further as the five planets of Sorarix Galaxy began coming into alignment. One of the men picked up the machine and showed it to Udrax, who gave a short approving nod. The fourth planet to the star, Itrix Urba, blocked the starlight, forming a shadow on Itrix Vega. Udrax kept sitting, legs crossed, and looked at the headless corpse in front of him. His left eye twitched uncontrollably. His face expressionless.

Zalez had been captured.

Only one more remains now.

Enveloped in shadow, everything stopped. The Galaxy held its breath for an eternity before letting it all out in a sigh. The Reset took place. The world returned to the state it was in 24 hours ago. People. Vehicles. Memories. Back to their original positions. A Day forgotten. Men moved on unaware they were living a day on repeat. Memories of the time gone. To them, the day had never happened. Only a select few remembered. They are the Non-resets, men who determine the destiny of this looped world. A world that was about to plunge into chaos.

This was the event that led to the Birth of Oblivion!